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Man United v Arsenal Player Ratings – Brilliant Monreal MOTM

Szczesny – 6
He was pretty shaky for the entire game with a lot of iffy moments including some poor kicks from the back that put us under a lot of pressure.

Bellerin – 5.5
He was poor for the entire game with him picking up a yellow extremely early. He was almost sent off in the second half and was promptly substituted before he was eventually given his marching orders by Oliver.

Mertesacker – 8
He was very strong today. He started off a bit nervous but grew into the game and pressed and passed well for the entire game.

Koscielny – 7.5
He didn’t do well enough for United’s goal but did defend well afterwards and did a lot of work to contain the threat of Fellaini and Rooney.

Monreal – 8.5 (MOTM)
He was phenomenal today both offensively and defensively. He scored the opening goal which was massively important as well as ensuring that Valencia and Di Maria couldn’t do much in terms of overlapping play.

Coquelin – 8
This was a top quality performance from a rising player in our ranks. He controlled the game in central midfield with United only really making chances with crosses from out wide. He also managed to win 10 out of his 12 duels against Fellaini showing the total midfield domination.

Cazorla – 7.5
He was equally good at moving the ball forwards as well as making crucial tackles. He kept the ball in intelligent positions and could’ve had a goal had De Gea not made a wonder save.

Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7.5
The Englishman provided a great outlet on the counter with his pace and he was the sole orchestrator for Monreal’s goal with his amazing dribbling. It’s a shame he had to go off early for injury and I hope it’s nothing serious.

Özil – 7.5
His control of the game in the second half was sublime. He continued to press United when they were weaker and his weight of pass always put them under immense pressure.

Alexis – 6.5
He was energetic as usual and provided a lot of pressing from the front but he dawdled on the ball far too much for my liking and was predictable. Even then, he almost scored at the end showing how good he is even when average.

Welbeck – 7.5
He worked his socks off for the team today. It was smart play by the Englishman in the second half where he relentlessly pressed United’s CBs until they eventually made the mistake that lead to the goal. That wasn’t by accident. He could see they were struggling to play out of the back and if he pressed them enough, they’d make a mistake.

Subs:
Ramsey – 7.5
He came on and really calmed the game down for us. He ensured that we kept possession and were dangerous on the counter.

Chambers – 7
He was subbed on because Bellerin was about to get sent off and he played a composed game with good physicality to ensure Utd never built up a head of steam.

Giroud – 7
Came on for Welbeck and was immediately in the thick of the action with a good pass that led to a Cazorla shot that was magnificently saved by De Gea.

I think it’s a fair rating. If I was to rate him on the ball I’d have give him a 3 he had one of those games where every time he touched the ball it went wrong but he was understandably nervous returning to old Trafford and wanting to prove a point. But he worked really hard off the ball scored a great goal & should have had a penalty.

and a 10 for monsieur WENGER,right starting line up(montreal,welbbeck)right substitutions especially bellerin who would have got a 2nd yellow card&us ending up with 10 men!well done to the team and to the travelling fans too!!!

Very hard to chose between Monreal and Coquelin. But again, Le Coq being MOTM again wouldn’t be a surprise anymore, isn’t it? So I would go for Monreal as well.
One thing which surprised me totally was how committed was Cazorla last night when he was paired with Coquelin somehow deeper. Got to admire the guy at his 30’s not only for his qualities but for his work rate and team dedication.

“Bellerin poor for the entire game”? I don’t know which game u watched…yes he made 2 rash tacles, but apart from that he was pretty solid for me. He never gave the United wingers any time to make crosses from his flank…in fact the 1st threatening cross from United came right after he left.

Rating are good, except Bellerin and Welbeck. Bellerin was at least a 7, he got back quick enough and I feel he put in a good shift. Although Welbeck scored the winner, let’s be honest guys he was horrible 90% of his time on the pitch. I think a 6.5 to 7 would do him justice – a 7 because of his goal. Also perhaps Chamberlain deserves an 8, he was our best player up until he went off. What a sublime bit of individual skill and assist for Monreal.

Manure were cheating and fouling all second half so it was great to see Ramsey give it back by fouling Young. He got a yellow, but it was so worth it, I think it unsettled them even more and I loved the way he jogged off not giving a rats ass.

Loved Le Coqs fire and edginess throughout the entire game. His unwillingness to be intimidated and bullied by the Belgian Felatio set the physical tone for Arsenal. His fiery disposition has made a HUGE difference in the overall psyche of the squad.

Next ?, do Arsenal need to spend $20-30M on a Schneiderlin or Kongogbia or allocate that cash toward a Laporte, Varane, Ramos, Lacazette, Dybala, J Martinez? Should be an interesting and exciting summer

But what if he gets injured??? We ain’t got any other DM.. And with our injury record I would not take a chance on only having 1 DM.. That’s how we messed up in the Sumer regarding CBs, we started with 2 and it fcked us up..

Let’s not take any chances, if we have an opportunity to strengthen in DM then I don’t see the reason why not. Arteta is finished let’s be honest, his body is tellin us so, can’t keep fit. Flamini is just a joke accident waiting to happen.

Should we go with the same starting lineup against Monaco? My worry is the status of the OX injury, may be Walcolt will replace him. Maybe Arsene need to start Walcolt against Westham on Saturday so that he can be ready for the Monaco game. We need pace pace and pace if we are after taking Manaco out, there will be no room for the so called “hold up play”

Unfortunately Monaco does not have such as $hitty defense so I am not sure if the same team will feature. The nice part is that we have plenty of players to pick from for the remainder of the season so I hope we will reach the FA Cup final and above 4th with the group we have.
I am looking at the games we have to play and this is perfectly possible if we will keep our head straight.

I wouldn’t worry to much about Alexis, even when in average form he’s still the best all around player on the pitch. I think physically he may be hitting that inevitable wall but his willingness to constantly attack and track back when losing possession is invaluable to Arsenals success. Its no coincidence that when he and Ox start on the wings our fullback play and overall defense is considerably better.

West Ham is anoda game we shouldn’t take easy, I watched west Ham chelsea, d team played well, as for me we shouldn’t waste most of our life on monaco, even if we win, can we win ucl? FA n 2nd or 3rd in Epl should be our target

I wonder what you are looking at sometimes when you are making these judgements. Mertesacker more than Kos that surely is wrong. Bellerin only 5.5. the boy never stops running as opposed to Mert who never starts. He did actually make some good clearances in 2nd half, but the times he gets caught out of position, much too often. Luckily he has plenty of quick guys around to cover for his lack of pace . He didn’t see the danger from Rooney for the goal and was just covering empty space. However we thoroughly deserved the win and but for De Gea we could have had at least four. Sorry Mr Rhino but not for me!

Just shows how unreliable the eyes are when sub-conscious prejudices kick in. 9 out of 10 neutrals will tell you PM outshone Kos last night. Watch the game again – I did last night because I couldn’t sleep and was still pumped. I had Monreal, Coq and BFG as the top three performers – albeit I thought everyone put in a decent shift, it was a team performance for a change not relying on individual brilliance.

Bellerin made 2 rash challenges, but for most of the game he was quite good. His ability to recover and close down an attacker with his pace is 2nd to none. I thought he was mostly very good throughout the game.

But KJ thinks…… “He was poor for the ENTIRE game.”

If he was poor throughout the game Arsenal would have lost – just that simple.

Playing CB earlier in the season must have transformed Monreal, he looks more calmer, composed, strong etc… The way he uses his body to fend if attackers has impressed me, he can read the game now. And he looks pumped up than he was he joined us, been hitting the gym.

All in all he has been very good and I hope it continues.

The Coq was not too far behind him, the way he was roughing up Lamp post (Fellaini) all game was epic, for a smaller guy he absolutely made it hard for Fellaini, he was like a pitbull roughing that giant lamp post. Hope he continues to develop at this rate, he is very promising.

The whole team did well but these 2 guys were a bit ahead of the rest..

Bellerin didn’t have a great night last night but the fact that all the other players played well and that we FREAKING KNOCKED OUT UNITED FROM THE FA CUP AT OLD TRAFFORD means I will give Bellerin a break for last night. LO

I’m just still happy about last night. I’m still on a high. We MUST focus on West Ham now (but I’m actually starting to believe we could even beat Monaco 0-3 lol)

Schnezy: looked very nervous in goal, making some silly decisions, and dribbling around the striker in the first half was almost suicidal. Ospina must have been happy

Sanchez: Vicitm of he’s own high standards perhaps, but he wasn’t the threat he was earlier in the season. I think he needs a well earned rest – even if he doesn’t want it

Ozil: I barelly noticed him. And despite what Ive read from other fans, I thought he went missing in this game. I was shouting for Walcott to come on instead, and push another player into the middle

But who cares – the only thing that matters was the win. And we deserved it, we were a little better than Man U on the day- but we shouldn’t get over-excited this is a very poor Man U team- we still have lots of work to do-